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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

First of all: I'm happy to see someone so dedicated to music and not least piano playing as you. It's great to see that you're taking interest in composition, and overall you just seem genuinely passionate about the world of music. I do have some suggestions for you when it comes to moving further into composing based on what you have showed us in this thread. For a first effort it's not at all bad, but since you're probably looking more for where to go next rather than just pats on the back, then I hope the following pointers will be helpful to you.

No one can teach you how to compose good music. If that was possible, everyone would be composing great music and it wouldn't be a creative trade anymore. You cannot learn creativity. What you can learn, just as with writing, acting, and of course composition is technique, methods, theories and other such things. That's something to remember when you're doing anything that has to do with creating original material. The quality of the end result rests entirely on you. Another thing to keep in mind is that it's you who's creating this material, and you're not trying to please someone else by catering to them. It will absolutely ruin any original and creative flow if you don't follow your own feelings when you write. Don't worry about what others will think about your music - ever - and only use these ideas if you truly agree with them.

With that out of the way, I have two major suggestions for your music. You have developed some melodies with potential, but every time it seems like they're about to take off and take your music a step further, you choose to revert to the starting point again and abandon development. If you have found a good theme, don't just let it sit there and repeat itself - let it break free and explore new territories. Let it carry the composition around and make it a bit more unpredictable. This way you'd also get a chance to write a much more interesting left hand.

And that's the second major idea. You write it yourself - your left hand is kind of so-so. And it is (it's good that you know it). It almost seems a little bit like you write the theme, and then you try and add the left hand but it kind of gets in the way and wont really do what you want it to - then you finally find a little phrase and end up repeating it over and over again. But the left hand is really your friend - the ultimate tool to add texture and depth to your composition. You should use it not in addition to the right hand, but in conjunction with it. Develop it up around your main theme so that they work together instead of 'left hand backs up the right hand' which is much too common and not at all interesting.

You're only just starting out, but try pay equal respect to both hands when you're developing your music. Think of it as an extra tool instead of as a problem you have to solve. It's there to help your theme and make your music more interesting.

I've never quite understood the left hand. Well, I do understand why it is there, and when I analyze music, I can see how the left hand works together with the right hand.

But if there is only a melody, and I myself have to come up with the left hand part, I'm entirely lost. I have no idea how to go about writing something that isn't a melody, aside from just repeating the same chord or pattern over and over again (and as I've been discovering this weekend, I can't just repeat the same chord over and over again - aside from the fact that it is boring, the melody modulates and then so must the harmony). It seems like I should have some great ideas, because I play so much music and I listen to even more. Perhaps if I just sit down with a bunch of music and analyze the left hand parts - how they are constructed - and write down some general strategies and patterns, that will help.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to/read my work and give me some advice.

Regarding your writing for left hand, some exercises you might try are to write some pieces that (a) have the melody in the left hand with right hand accompaniment, or (b) split the melody between hands. They don't have to be masterpieces, but this exercise might get you to start thinking differently about the left hand and how it can figure into your compositions.

I also have to agree with Mick, what you have written down are decent motifs to begin with, but they lack development and they become banal after a while. An exercise you might try for this is to write a theme and variations work. Take a theme (yours or someone elses) and try to create as many different transformations of it as you can. This may help you to think about how you can take a melody and transform it and work with it to ultimately develop your piece.

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What you are is an accident of birth. What I am, I am through my own efforts. There have been a thousand princes and there will be a thousand more. There is one Beethoven.